Gaming machines currently exist with mechanical or video reels having symbols thereon. In general, a player is awarded one or more credits in a slot gaming machine when one or more randomly generated symbols or combination of symbols appear on a payline. Known gaming devices also awards credits for combinations of scattered symbols.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement provided by gaming machines, gaming device manufacturers constantly strive to provide players with new types of gaming machines that attract players and keep players entertained. One proven way manufacturers use to make their gaming machines more popular is to increase the number and variety of winning combinations and provide more opportunities for the player to win. Providing more variety and opportunities holds the player's interest for a longer time and also enables the manufacturer to have a wider range of payouts for the winning combinations.
To increase the number and variety of winning combinations, manufacturers have increased the number of paylines. Paylines are predetermined arrays in the set of reels where the gaming machine evaluates whether a predetermined combination of symbols occurred. A payline may consist of any number or configurations of positions of gaming symbols. For example, a payline in a set of reels can consist of a horizontal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a diagonal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a line overlapping several rows along the reels. It is well known to provide gaming machines with multiple paylines.
It should also be appreciated that gaming machines have become rather complex in comparison to the conventional three reel machines. Currently, many slot machines have a display with a set of five reels with three gaming symbols visible on each reel. This results in a visible set of gaming symbols in a three by five configuration. The majority of five reel slot machines have nine paylines, although twelve, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five payline games are becoming more common. Slot machines may also utilize more than five reels and/or more than three visible gaming symbols on each reel, such as a ten reel configuration with ten visible gaming symbols on each reel. Such a slot machine may have a large number of potential paylines on a singular set of reels. With the increased complexity of the number and the positioning of the paylines on a singular set of reels, it becomes increasingly unwieldy for the gaming software to evaluate a winning combination or combinations of gaming symbols. At some point, adding variety yields diminished returns because of increased complexity. Multiple winning combinations may also become too complex for the player (i.e., a player may win after a given spin of the reels and find it difficult to determine how, where or why the player has won).
Current gaming machines also provide secondary or bonus games in addition to primary games. These secondary or bonus games are generally different from the primary game. The secondary or bonus games are played separately from the primary game. For instance, secondary or bonus games may be evaluated with a different sets of predetermined combinations of the gaming symbols and/or different paylines. Bonus games may also be completely different games.
One known game which provides a variety of winning combinations which are readily understandable to players is International Game Technology's TOTEM POLE™ game which enables a player to play three different games on one gaming machine at the same time. The TOTEM POLE™ game has the following three separate games on three different sets of reels: RED, WHITE & BLUE™ game; DOUBLE DIAMOND™ game; and FIVE TIMES PAY™ game. The RED, WHITE & BLUE™ game pays a jackpot when the red “7” symbol, the white “7” symbol and the blue “7” symbol appear on a payline. The DOUBLE DIAMOND™ game utilizes the DOUBLE DIAMOND™ symbol as a wildcard. If one DOUBLE DIAMOND™ symbol lands on a payline in a winning combination, the game pays double the original award associated with the winning combination. If two DOUBLE DIAMOND™ symbols lands on a payline in a winning combination, the game pays four times the original award associated with the winning combination. The FIVE TIMES PAY™ game pays five times the original award of a winning combination when the FIVE TIMES PAY™ symbol appears in the combination on a payline. If two FIVE TIMES PAY™ symbols appear on a payline in a winning combination, the game pays twenty-five times the original award associated with the winning combination. If the FIVE TIMES PAY™ symbol appears in each position on the payline and the player played the maximum bet, the player wins the highest award associated with that game.
The TOTEM POLE™ game also includes a jackpot. If the TOTEM POLE™ symbol appears on each reel on each of the three paylines (i.e., the payline in each game) the player wins a jackpot if the player bets the maximum bet of six coins. The game thus has three paylines. The player may bet two coins on each payline. This game also allows the player to bet (a) one or two coins on the payline in the first game; (b) two coins on the payline in the first game and one or two coins on the payline in the second game; and (c) two coins on the payline in the first game, two coins on the payline in the second game, and one or two coins on the payline in the third game.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide new gaming machines with a base or primary game whereby players can easily recognize winning combinations of gaming symbols on a multitude of paylines. It is also desirable to reduce the complexity of gaming software needed to evaluate winning combinations on multiple paylines.